By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s Reliance Industries Ltd has turned its sights on the domestic market, offering a high-performance diesel at a lower price than fuel sold by state-owned retailers, the operator of the world’s biggest refining complex said on Tuesday.
Jio-bp, the retail fuel joint venture of Reliance and bp will sell diesel mixed with detergents and dispersants at 1 rupee cheaper per litre than gasoil sold by the state-run companies, such as, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum.
The additive-enhanced diesel helps to clean dirt deposits in engines and can improve fuel efficiency, Jio-bp said in a statement.
Diesel is the main fuel used by truckers in India’s transport sector and accounts for about two-fifths of the country’s overall refined fuel consumption.
Higher local sales could lower diesel exports from Reliance Industries’ 660,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery at Jamnagar complex in western India. Reliance also operates a 704,000 bpd export-focused refinery at the complex.
Reliance was selling diesel for much of last year at a higher rate than sold by state-owned retailers, who had capped prices since May 2022 to shield consumers and aid the government’s efforts to control inflation.
That pushed Reliance and fellow private refiner Nayara Energy to focus on exports of diesel to benefit from high profit margins on overseas sales.
Diesel margins have fallen substantially from June 2022’s record of more than $71 a barrel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, making local sales economically feasible.
The refining margin for gasoil with a sulphur content of 10 parts per million fell to around $15 a barrel on Tuesday.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Kim Coghill, Christian Schmollinger and Louise Heavens)
